This situation reflects best practices in supplier relationships – customers provide suppliers with their longer-term production plans, not just current purchase orders. This allows suppliers to better plan their operations

Provide suppliers with long-term production plans, not just current purchase orders.
Suppliers can better plan their operations
Must overcome trust issues
Find ways to increase overall supply chain value

Associative
—Causal relationships
—When demand is driven by changes in other factors

Time Series
—Identify historical patterns and forecast into the future.
—If we know that sales are 20% above average each January, the forecast for next January should be upward 20%.
—This is an inappropriate method for weekly sales fluctuations that are the result of price and advertising changes.

4 components of time series demand

Level
Trend
Seasonality
Error

Simple Moving Average
– Choice of N in the forecast

Large N
Advantages: Smoothes out random variations in demand
Disadvantage: reacts slowly to changes in demand